“Where do you start with this deceitful company. We reserved a property on their Seamer site near Scarborough and proceeded towards exchange. A property reservation fee of £500 and £700 of legal fees later my solicitor discovered a public right of way running immediately at the back and the side of the property which wasn't on any site plans displayed in the sales office, wasn't on any plans supplied to us and wasn't once mentioned to us by sales staff. Indeed the right of way was located on land misleadingly shown as belonging to our property and the neighbouring property on the sales brochure and our supplied details. Further, on our home demonstration we asked the site manager the location of our boundaries and he was very economical with the truth on two separate occasions as to the location of the boundaries and again didn't make us aware of the public right of way. Thankfully our solicitor was doing her job but at that stage we were £1300 out of pocket. We had to pull out of the purchase but agreed to reserve a different property with Linden on the Heartlands site in Driffield transferring the resevation as we were worried about losing our sale.
We managed to keep our buyer sweet and were assured of a September completion in writing for the new reservation (agreed verbally by the site manager and in writing by the site sales team). However, we should have learnt from the previous reservation that Linden could not be trusted. Two weeks before the agreed completion date and despite a month of desperately chasing Linden to confirm the date officially to our buyer's solicitor only to be greeted with complete silence, we were dropped the bombshell with absolutely no valid reason that the completion date was now October. Not only did this mean that both me and my buyer now had to pay stamp duty it also meant my buyer finallly lost patience and pulled out of my sale. This was despite the Linden house being finished!
After a formal complaint to Linden they then mysteriously agreed an end of September completion knowing that my sale had fallen through! We were promised that Linden would be patient and wait within reason for us to find a new buyer given the appalling way they had behaved so far on both plots. But lo and behold just 10 days past the original agreed completion date the house was put back on the open market without even telling us or our solicitor! We found out when we visited the property and the sold signs had been replaced with For Sale signs! I am now out of pocket by a further £600 giving a total loss of around £2500 counting cost accrued on my abortive sale so far.
Both purchases fell through solely as a result of Linden's deceit, lack of ethics and total incompetence. I haven't even been offered my reservation fee back! I will now have to take legal action against this appalling company at further cost. Please please do not deal with this shocking company. Just read some of the reviews. I have purchased 3 new builds with various builders and I have never dealt with a company as bad as Linden. AVOID AVOID AVOID”
“We've lived in our Linden home for 2 years and during that period had the usual snagging stuff which Linden generally took care of. They were excellent in the first 2 weeks and then asked for a review which we gave happily & positively. Unfortunately, since then we're had 2 leaks which have caused damage to both the flooring and ceilings below. We are still waiting on the main bathroom floor to be replaced.
Our latest issue is faulty grouting in the en-suite which has led to water getting behind the tiles causing mould and again water damage to the ceiling below.
I started to remove the silicone around the shower tray to replace it but the tiles were lose and literally fell out which was due to the grout failing.
At this point we spoke to Linden who's response was:
"In terms of your shower, I have spoken to my manager, our NHBC inspector and the NHBC directly who have advised, it is believed that the reason the tiles have fallen off from the bottom row is due to mastic or grout failure in which the area has turned black from water damage.
The reason for this belief is there is no pipework present around this area meaning, this damage has not been caused by a pipework leak.
I have queried with the NHBC whether the mastic and grout would be deemed a latent defect to which they advised, mastic and grout falls under homeowner maintenance outside of the warranty period.
Noting you reported this issue outside of your warranty, I regret to advise I cannot assist any further.
Should you wish, please do feel free to contact the NHBC for further advice and support."
So they basically said, the grout has failed (in less than 2 years!!) but it's our problem and not theirs.
We've owned houses for decades and other than cleaning - grout doesn't need maintenance.
So, Linden not interested. NHBS not interested. Insurance company not interested (they only cover leaks and not water ingress due to faulty workmanship).
Now, we are left picking up a £2-£3K bill for the repairs.
We nearly sold this house and bought a larger one on the same development (Beaumont Park in Ringwood) but Covid put a stop to that - potentially a good thing and we dodged a bullet - more bathrooms = more leaks.
As soon as this is sorted out we'll be selling this clown house which just keeps falling apart.”
